Alright folks, we’re coming to you again from El Casa Diablo talking about Dead by April’s latest Album called Incomparable, and Fred Olen Ray’s 1988 classic Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers.

We bring back the “Question of the Episode”, and this episode we direct it to the ladies out there.

Finally, we have the first prize pack available since The Corpse Cast’s inception! Zach calls in with another “name that tune” contest… So let’s get the guesses in!

Enjoy!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:10:19 — 119.4MB)

Here’s a little monster movie trash for the more indiscriminate among you. We’ve got a small Texas town terrorized by a renegade primate that has been mutated by NASA experiments. The town’s only hope are the local “college kids” who all seem to be around 35 or so. Not great, not even that good really, but you can watch it at work instead of doing something productive and that is always a plus.  Have a good weekend and enjoy the flick.

For some reason, we’re having an issue converting this file… but it is definitely available for download!

How do you follow up an epic masterpiece from 1973 starring Christopher Lee, about a group of people who practice ancient pagan rituals on a Scottish island? Even if it were almost 40 years later?  Well… It would stand to reason that you make a movie with Christopher Lee about a group of people who practice ancient pagan rituals on a Scottish Island… Well… maybe. However, as my buddy Lee Corso would say: “Not so fast, my friend!”

I’m referring to the film masterpiece from 1973 entitled The Wicker Man. In this film, a police officer was sent from mainland Scotland to a small island called Summerisle. Here, Sergeant Neil Howie is sent in to solve an apparent missing persons case. Without talking too much about the plot (because I’m sure you’ve all seen it), I’ll just say that Sgt. Howie is faced with trials that make him question his strong Christian conviction, and he ends up falling into a trap set by the people of Summerisle.

Fast forward to 2011, we’re introduced to an Evangelical Christian Church from Texas U.S.A. and a young couple, Beth Boothby and Steve Thompson (Played by Brittania Nicol and Henry Garret respectively) who have chosen to visit the heathens of Scotland to bring them the word of Christ. Like in its predecessor, these Christians are taken to a remote Scottish village where the locals practice a form of Paganism.

Now, I’m not going to discuss any of the plot, at least not in an exhaustive way. I will say, however, that there is a famine, of sorts, in the small Scottish village. Unlike in The Wicker Man,  this famine is an inability for the women of this small town to conceive children. Much like in The Wicker Man,  this famine is what sets the stage for this film and gives us a reason to have the Evangelical Missionaries come to the small town.

Written and directed by The Wicker Man‘s director, Robin Hardy (this film was actually based on Hardy’s Novel: Cowboys for Christ), he takes a bit of a different angle with The Wicker Tree. I mean… would it be smart to just do an exact retread of The Wicker Man? Probably not… However, what he did was take enough similarities and create a story unique enough for it to theoretically have the same feel and themes of the original without outright rehashing the original story.

I have to admit… being an utter fanboy of the original, I was anticipating this film from the first time I heard it was in production. However, after seeing this film, I was very disappointed. Some would say that it was inevitable that this film wouldn’t stand up to the level of excitement I had and maybe it was unfair to put such expectations on it. However, though I couldn’t help but continually compare it to the original, there were many things that really got under my skin while watching this film.

The first, and most painfully obvious problem with the film, is the fact that the two Christian missionaries couldn’t have been more wooden and cliche representations of hick, Texas proud, country folk. They were completely unlikeable. In the first hour of the film, I cringed every time they opened their mouths. I don’t know if it was their dialog, so much, as it was the delivery by the actors. In the beginning Sgt. Howie is a likeable, no-nonsense, person who was truly likeable. Now, it’s true that we got to know Howie in a much deeper manner than Beth and Steve, but we did journey with him through the mystery that was Summerisle. He was a complex character, that the audience liked and struggled with. Whereas I wanted Beth and Steve to get their asses burnt after about 10 minutes into the movie.

In The Wicker Man, we had the chance to meet and interact with many of the Summerisle locals. We even got to see one of Christopher Lee’s best performances playing Lord Summerisle. We heard them discuss their beliefs, their rituals, and why they do it. In The Wicker Tree, we have a one-dimensional, mustache twirling, bad guy Sir Lachlan Morrison (Played by Graham McTavish). Instead of being the leader of a group of folks that is willing to go to great lengths to do what is the best interests of their people, Morrison seems to be an uncaring murderer.

In the original, the May Day celebration ritual depended upon Howie’s goodness and uncompromising drive to solve his case, to allow him to come of his own volition to fulfill Lord Summerisle’s ritual. In The Wicker Tree, (SPOILER ALERT) Sir Lachlan Morrison was just going to poison Beth and send her to her fate and cheaply trick Steve to send him to his death (SPOILER OVER). This film had so much less imagination than its predecessor that it left a huge gap in my expectations for this film.

My final gripe about this whole movie, and the thing that inevitably made me lose complete interest, was the way that it seemed to not have any of the suspense of intrigue of the original. There was plenty of nudity… but mostly in a tribal dancing savage way instead of the overwhelmingly sensual way that the original was full of. My pulse never pounded, my eyebrows never raised. Hardy seemed more interested in humiliating the Evangalical Christian cardboard-cutout characters by showing how easy it was to tempt them and expose their hipocracy, than to actually make these character “real” people with struggles and humanity.

This isn’t all bad. There are solid performances by many of the cast (like I said, neither of those solid performances was by Brittania Nicol or Henry Garret), and Honeysuckle Weeks is super-hot. There are moments of genuine humor… and did I mention Honeysuckle Weeks is super-hot? However, it wasn’t nearly enough to salvage this film… not even close.

Oh… and one more thing… Christopher Lee was in one short scene as a cameo. Apparently he injured himself and wasn’t able to take on the role he was offered of Morrison and had to settle for the short scene he was in. I’m not sure if he could have saved this film because of the writing… so I guess it’s just as well he didn’t have much to do with it.

Actually… you know who could have made this film better? Nicholas Cage… yeah… I said it…

Slice(Cheun)-Thailand 2010.

Director-Konkiat Khmosiri

Starring:Arak Amornsupasiri as Tai, Chatchi Plenpanich as Papa Chin.

IMDB TITLE

Hello Folks,

Jonny T here from the UK. Over the next few reviews I will be bringing you several great Asian titles for The Corpse Collective to rip your eyeballs apart! Some of which you may have heard of some of you may not have. I will be starting this series with the fantastic film from Thailand entitled Slice.

The films plot revolves around a serial killer that is killing mainly the rich and influential and leaving various body parts scattered around as clues. It reaches fever pitch when body parts start turning up everywhere and the policeman in charge is given an ultimatum of just 15 days to solve the case by a minister whose very own son has become a victim of the killer. The policeman in question is Papa Chin. He basically has no clues or leads to go on so, against his best wishes, he reluctantly turns to a prisoner he knows of named Tai. Arrested and jailed for being a hit man he assures Papa that he has a very big clue of to who the serial killer is. He thinks it’s a disturbed friend from his childhood. So Tai is released, and heads back to his old town and old places he and his friend used to hang out to start searching for clues and possibly to find his friend who could be the killer… and by the way his friend is  brilliantly named “Nut”.

So there you go that’s the basic outline of the plot and although it doesn’t sound that exciting I can 100% reassure you that it is intense beyond belief, the violence level is certainly ramped up to 11 and with twists that will just blow you away. The cinematography, by director  Kongkiat Khomsiri, is stunning and the acting is top notch. The main thing I liked about this though was the way the story is told. As with a lot of the Asian films there is obviously a massive cultural difference and sometimes a lot is lost in translation as in traditions Etc. But it’s told in such a way that it never turns confusing or dull… and as I said this is as violent as many Asian flicks. The film opens with a paedophile in a hotel room inviting in a small figure dressed in a red hood and then is subsequently stabbed to death in a bath and has his genitals removed and that’s just the opening scene! No spoilers but there is a twist at the end which I didn’t see coming at all. So whether you are into Asian films or are sometimes put off by subtitles, I would ask you to give this one a try before it gets turned into another bad western remake… and yes, apparently it is being remade, boohoo!!!!

Until next time, take it easy corpse people,

Jonny T.

http://jonnyscultfilms.blogspot.com

This week’s episode focuses on the Swedish band Ghost’s first full-length effort entitled: Opus Eponymous. We also talk some about 2003′s The Manson Family…

Get out your shields folks… your ears are about to take a beating!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:02:29 — 112.2MB)